Seeing Through the Smoke

A Cannabis Specialist Untangles the Truth About Marijuana

By: Peter Grinspoon MD

Narrated by: Alex Boyles

Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

Depending on which doctor you speak with or which websites you read, cannabis could be an appealing, low-risk medicine—even an aid to wellness—or an insidiously addictive drug rotting the brains of our youth. This dissonance confuses young people, distressed patients, and paralyzes politicians, all while inviting dubious sources of information and resulting in uninformed choices, enhanced polarization, and a fragmented national policy.

Seeing through the Smoke is an unflinching examination at the grossly misunderstood drug that uses data-driven medical science and a critical historical perspective to reveal the truth behind cannabis.

In this balanced and measured investigation, cannabis specialist and instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School Dr. Peter Grinspoon untangles the reality behind cannabis, revealing how we ended up with radically divergent understandings of the drug and pointing a way toward a middle ground that we can all share.

Moving through an illuminating tour of the social history and the medical science behind cannabis, Grinspoon unpacks the layers of disinformation left by a sordid history of government propaganda, racial suppression, and indifference from the medical community to answer questions like:

• Is cannabis addictive?
• What are its best-established medical uses?
• Can cannabis help cure cancer?
• How does cannabis affect memory?
• How dangerous is cannabis for teens?
• Is cannabis a safer treatment for ADHD and PTSD?
• What exactly is CBD and how is it different from marijuana?
• What are the most concerning side effects?

By focusing on the most critical purported harms—driving, pregnancy, addictiveness, memory—and by focusing on the most commonly cited medical benefits—relieving chronic pain, sleep, anxiety, PTSD, autism, and cancer—Seeing through the Smoke will help patients, parents, doctors, health experts, regulators, and politicians move beyond biased perceptions and arrive at a shared reality towards cannabis.

©2023 Peter Grinspoon (P)2023 Blackstone Publishing

Well-thought & well-written

I learned a ton & am grateful to the author for writing this book. Highly recommend.

lives up to its title

Through an engaging mixture of powerful anecdotes from his clinical and personal experience coupled with his firm grasp of the historical and scientific literature, Dr. Grinspoon helps us to see beyond the pro and anti myths of cannabis to a more accurate picture of its clinical usefulness and potential dangers. I recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding how we came to this divergent narrative and how cannabis can be safely used to help pain and many other common clinical problems.

Thoroughly Researched and Comprehensive Book on Cannabis

I learned so much by reading this book. I hope Dr.Grinspoon organizes trainings for all in the medical world. Nixon is to blame for decades lost in researching the therapeutic benefits of medical marijuana. I learned about his father, Harvard psychiatrist Lester Grinspoon who wrote the 1971 groundbreaking book, Marijuana Reconsidered. Dr X in that book was Carl Sagan. I recommend this book heartily!

Accurate and truthful cannabis representation

Throughly reviewed all aspects of Cannabis in an unbiased way. Science based evidence was provided, both considering the positives and negatives of cannabis. Excellent read!